Joanne Peterson

Joanne Peterson is the founder and Executive Director of Learn to Cope, Inc., a national peer support network based in Taunton, Massachusetts, that serves families affected by substance use disorder, particularly the opioid crisis. Although she holds no formal advanced degree, having graduated from Blue Hills Regional Technical School, Joanne has built a 22-year career rooted entirely in lived experience, beginning in 2004 when personal struggles with addiction in her own family inspired her to start the organization as a volunteer effort. What began as a grassroots initiative has since grown into a sprawling network of roughly twenty-six chapters across Massachusetts, including a Spanish-language chapter, along with national outreach into the Midwest, western United States, and Florida, plus virtual meetings drawing participants from Canada and the United Kingdom. Today, Learn to Cope supports tens of thousands of registered families and is run by a staff of seventeen under contract with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health.

Before devoting herself fully to this mission, Joanne spent years building a career in customer service and administration, supervising teams of representatives at Chadwick's of Boston and the Museum of Fine Arts, and later serving as an executive secretary at the National Fire Protection Association, a role she held even as Learn to Cope evolved from a side project into a full-time calling. Her transition into nonprofit leadership was bolstered early on by mentor Marianne Frangoulis of the Massachusetts Organization of Addiction Recovery, who helped guide her toward advocacy and helped others in recovery find their own voices. Under Joanne's leadership, the organization pioneered milestone harm-reduction work, becoming the first parent-led group in the country certified to distribute naloxone, a program credited with saving hundreds of lives. She has since expanded Learn to Cope's offerings to include the Forget-Me-Not Initiative for kinship caregivers, the GRACE program for women rebuilding their lives after incarceration, bereavement support for grieving families, and annual wellness retreats featuring yoga, sound healing, and other restorative practices.

Beyond her organizational leadership, Joanne has emerged as a prominent statewide and national advocate, testifying against Purdue Pharma executives and contributing to a settlement exceeding $900 million for victims in Massachusetts. Her advocacy work has earned her appointments to multiple state commissions, including the OxyContin Commission and the Opioid Remediation Commission, as well as collaborations with successive Massachusetts governors, Baker, Healey, and Patrick. She has received national recognition for her efforts, including being named a CNN Champion for Change and receiving a National Advocate Award. Looking ahead, Joanne continues to develop new initiatives such as Luna's Light, a program supporting children who have lost parents to addiction through art and storytelling, while also beginning to plan her own transition toward retirement, with hopes of remaining involved as a board member to ensure the community she built continues to thrive for generations to come.